"Drive Angry" was not the huge success that it set out to be. However, based on this release, the home video market might just be the ticket for "Drive Angry" to gain popularity. More accurately, "Drive Angry" in 3D may be the ticket 3D needs to convince consumers to invest in the technology.

The plot of "Drive Angry" is fairly weak. There is a good story in there somewhere, but it buried amidst undeveloped characters and far too many subplots, which by the way never get answered. That is my pet peeve when it comes to films. If a storyline is introduced then it better be addressed and resolved by the end.

In "Drive Angry" Milton is out for revenge for the brutal death of his daughter and son-in-law. At the same time he is trying to rescue his granddaughter. There is a crucial element to Milton's origin, which I will not divulge just in case you haven't heard anything about the film. That way it will sort of be a surprise when it is sort of revealed in the film. Note the several instances of "sort of." The surprise isn't really surprising because not enough information is given to the audience along the way. And two the reveal is underwhelming because they only ever beat around the bush and it comes so far along in the film that the audience already figured it out.

"Drive Angry" is Milton's quest to gain revenge against the cult that killed her daughter. There is a lot of satanic ritualistic sequences in here that have no concrete foundation. That is the main problem with the story is that elements are left floating, not properly introduced or resolved.

Once you hear of the film and its premise there is no other actor that
jumps to mind for the part of Milton other than Nicolas Cage. He seems
destined to play every role that calls for badass and a shallow
character. Cage had a period of more dramatic roles. "Leaving Las
Vegas" comes to mind. But this role fits in with what audiences have
come to expect from him. That being said the portrayal of Milton is not
distinguished for other Cage roles, turning this into just another
action film.

William Fichtner plays "The Accountant," and by far does the best in the
film. His performance is followed by Amber Heard, as the southern girl
who is escaping a bad relationship, and is seemingly chosen to go along
for the ride and serve a higher purpose at the end of the film.

"Drive Angry" is a film that was designed and shot natively in 3D. And
the 3D truly shines in this release. The film gives the audience
everything from depth to explosions right in your living room. When you
see a film like this that was shot in 3D is makes you wish upconverted
3D films didn't exist. The details are extraordinary. Never has an
action movie given the audience so much detail and texture. These are
brought to life by the 3D image. The gimmicky 3D nature of the film
fits perfectly with the genre. Bullets, explosions and body parts fly
from the screen and land in your lap. Don't worry, the gore of the film
is not as bad as it is touted to be. Any film with Danny Trejo, such
as "Machete" is much worse. The black levels are the drawback to the 3D
filming technology. Still, they provide a nice depth to the image.
Colors are fully saturated. Amber Heard has never look better than she
does in this 3D film. In short, the 3D nature of this film will left
you stunned. There are few instances of ghosting and banding in the
nighttime sequences, particularly the ones involving shots of the moon
in the dark sky. However, these nuanced sequences are trivial compared
to the excellent nature of the rest of the film. The 2D version of the
film is excellent as well, but after watching the 3D version the 2D
version just doesn't cut it. Probably should have watched the 2D
version first.

If ever there were a perfect audio counterpart to the video quality, it
is this DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio track. "Drive Angry" offers an audio track
that is as three-dimensional as 2D surround sound setups can offer. I
can only imagine the creativity that could be accomplished should this
film have been mixed using a spherical surround setup. Getting this out
of the way, the dialogue is the weakest point of the film. While it is
general fine, the timbre of the dialogue just doesn't fit in with the
rest of the audio components. It seems like more EQ was needed in the
mixing phase. Aside from that, the audio track boasts full usage of all
the speaker channels. Ambience and action components alike are
excellently spaced in the rear channels. Panning and directionality
between the front and rear soundfields is smooth and accurate. When
combined with the 3D visual nature of the film, sound effects that fly
from front to rear really match the action. The LFE channel is
bombastic. At times it actually overwhelms the track, but for the most
part it provides great drama to the audio track. Just make sure no one
is trying to sleep in your neighborhood when you watch this film. The
dynamics range can be a bit exhausting at times. It just never calms
down for a long enough period to give the audience a rest. But perhaps
that was the intention of the filmmakers.

"Drive Angry" comes in a two-disc package. One disc is a 3D Blu-ray of
the film and the other is a 2D Blu-ray disc. All the special features
are located on the 2D disc. There are relatively few bonus materials,
but they cover the basics of what Blu-ray can offer. First there is an
audio commentary with director Patrick Lussier and writer Todd Farmer.
The commentary is informative, but the interactive feature on the disc
is much more engaging. "Access: Drive Angry" is an interactive feature
that provides information that is scene specific. This feature provides
cast/crew interviews, behind the scenes footage, trivia, and even a
track the body count feature. Lastly, there are two brief deleted
scenes that were wisely cut from the final film. Both Blu-ray discs are
BD-Live enabled.

"Drive Angry" is not a deep movie, but it offers some great action
moments. The audio and video qualities will astound. The 3D version of
this film is perhaps of the best I have seen to date. Well, at in the
top three. I highly recommend this as a demo disc, but for those just
interested in movies, then maybe just a rent.